A group of graduating West Vancouver high school students can now say their creative work has been in an official art gallery.
The West Vancouver Grad Show is back at the Ferry Building Gallery, showcasing 34 works from graduating students from Collingwood, Mulgrave, Rockridge, Sentinel and West Vancouver secondary schools.
Leigh-Anne Niehaus, community arts supervisor for the Ferry Building Gallery, said this year features some unique pieces diving into the creative minds of students, ranging from paintings and sculptures to photographs and mixed media installations.
“The works are executed well and they’re extremely high standard. It’s very impressive,” Niehaus said. “That’s the feeling people get when they walk into the show – these are students, and they’re doing a really good job.”
Niehaus helps put the show together at the West Vancouver gallery. Staff work with teachers from the local schools to co-ordinate the exhibition, which has been an annual tradition since 2004.
Archer Slorendo from West Vancouver Secondary is one of the graduating students who has her work in the show. The 18-year-old artist has two clothing pieces in the exhibit – a dragon mask used in the school’s production of The Hobbit, and a stained-glass inspired ball gown symbolizing both herself and cultural heritage from the Philippines.
The Head of Smog mask is made of a cardboard base with paper mache and plaster, carefully decorated with fabric tassels and strips on the back to create a flowy design, giving the allusion of spikes that would be seen in traditional English dragons in mythology, Slorendo said.
“I costumed almost the entire cast last year and built a lot of the props, so The Head of Smog was something that I’m very proud of, that I wanted to show off,” she said.
Slorendo's ball gown, crafted with a stained-glass style motif, is meant to share parts of her culture and her personality. The ball gown’s sleeves resemble a cultural dress that many women wear in the Philippines, but also reveal parts of her identity, she said. One sleeve has a mango orchard with a sun to show the Philippines, while the other has bull kelp forests with a spotted harbour seal to represent the Pacific Northwest. For the skirt of the dress, each panel has a symbol representing major points in her life.
A witch and a fairy represent Slorendo and her best friend, who has helped her through difficult moments in her life. Others are a dragon in a tree with a rising sun and an angel holding a sword – both representing her strength and resilience as she has struggled with depression.
“I have this whole belief that to understand art and to see art is to see the artists in a form that a lot of people don’t see them. It is such a raw form of expression that you really get to know them personally,” Slorendo said. “It’s really been a labour of love over the past few years to create this dream dress from my childhood.”
Abby Horlick from West Vancouver Secondary decided to create something new for the grad show. The artist painted a tiger in three separate frames, using vibrant reds, yellows and greens.
Horlick said she took inspiration after looking at ancient Eastern Asian artwork, eventually leading her to create a tiger.
“The tiger is more courageous, brave motif,” Horlick said. “I thought having its belly shown was a little bit metaphorical there as well, I wanted to show the other side of that kind of tiger.”
Horlick worked on the tiger piece in her art class and feels honoured to have her work recognized in the gallery.
“It just felt really nice to be recognized like that,” she said. “Obviously I do art for my own benefit, but having other people recognize it as something worth displaying felt really good, so I’m very happy to be part of it.”
The West Vancouver Grad Show is running for free at the Ferry Building Gallery until June 29.
Abby Luciano is the Indigenous and civic affairs reporter for the North Shore News. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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